What ‘American Idol’ Cut From Mattie Pruitt’s Audition

You may have seen Craig Campbell on American Idol recently in support of his daughter’s friend, Mattie Pruitt — but Campbell revealed to Taste of Country Nights that we did not see everything that happened that day, and he told us the rest of the story.

The “Outskirts of Heaven” singer said, “They chiseled it down to three minutes from 14 hours of just sitting around and twiddling our thumbs. It was two days, from morning ’til, the sun was down when we left.”

We had to ask what we didn’t get to see from Pruitt’s audition; what didn’t make the final cut?

Campbell revealed, “One thing that didn’t get aired, that I thought was super-cool when she got her ticket, Luke [Bryan] was like, he looked at Lionel [Richie], he was like, ‘Lionel, Craig is one of the best singers that has ever graced the microphone,’ he was like, ‘Hit ’em with something, Craig!'”

“In the moment, I was like, ‘What do I do?'”

The country singer explained “I was about to go into ‘Stuck on You,’ Lionel Richie, but he was like, ‘Give him a little of that “Outskirts of Heaven.”‘

Campbell explained how it unfolded next.

“I played a little bit, and Lionel came down and shook my hand and was like, ‘Dude, that was amazing!'”

Campbell admits that it was “pretty cool” and that he’d “love to get the footage of that.”

With his connections in country music, and to Bryan, we are pretty sure Campbell will be able to secure that footage from the cutting room floor.

Campbell left us with some parting words of wisdom to anyone who plans on trying out for American Idol next season:

“Make sure you got your charger for your phone, so you can play solitaire.”